A Thousand Years
by H.iddennova
Summary: A thousand years would be worth the wait. It might take a lifetime, but somehow I'll see it through. An epilogue to my mass effect character, Evelyn Shepard.


_I finally had the chance to finish the Mass Effect Trilogy and made it through with a perfect ending and my Shepard living. However I still felt that there needed to be some sort of follow up and so I present to you my Shepard's Epilogue. _

_I may even do her whole story :) so a three part trilogy is in the works maybe for the future._

* * *

A Thousand Years

[Evelyn Shepard]

A brilliant ray of fire was the last thing I'd seen before light seized to exist. I had accepted death as it had finally come for me after so many years of avoiding it like the plague.

Moments from now I would hopefully be sitting at some bar above watching my friends as they continued on with their lives- -or suffer because of it.

_Consider this retirement._ I could almost hear Anderson's voice in my head and I hoped he would be waiting for me, wherever I was going. Hopefully it was that bar Garrus spoke of and maybe one day each one of my friends would join me there and we would converse as if everything was how it used to be.

Images flashed before me of all my memories, the good and bad. From the slavers attack on Mindoir to my Final moments sitting next to Anderson as he spoke those last words too me.

_I'm proud of you._

Suddenly I was able to see things and Anderson had appeared before me, seated upon a stool and a bar and everything else was exactly like my house back on the East Coast of Canada.

"Anderson," I spoke first, "It's good to see you."

The man gave me a smile and I sat down next to him, "I didn't expect you to be here so soon," he commented, no formalities involved.

"My time came to an end, but not before taking the reapers down with me."

He laughed looking at the glass in his hands before getting up and wondering my house, "Very nice house you have here."

"Parents bought it as a vacation home, but we hardly visited. We were planning to stay here for the summer, before the… Slavers attacked us on Mindoir."

Anderson's smile faded and inside something had to be wrong, "What's wrong?"

"Shepard, you don't belong here, not yet at least," he turned to, "You're still needed down there, you have lost the battle for your life yet."

"I'm still alive?" It was a question that went unanswered, "Even if I was alive, I'd be broken."

"Yet I've seen you survived Mindoir. Survived and watched your whole unit get taken out in one go. Survive a suicide mission that you put your life on the line despite the high risk of you not returning," He placed his glass down on the bar and sat down again, "You are a survivor, don't give up now."

"I-," I didn't know what to answer with, I was scared of leaving. Leaving Anderson alone up here, "I don't want to leave you again."

"You never have and I will be here waiting for our next round of drinks."

_Shepard, Commander Shepard._

Somewhere between all the talking with Anderson, other voices were calling out to me.

I turned my head away from Anderson, "Do you hear that?" I asked him and when I turned my head back around, I was once again alone. I closed my eyes in hopes that when I reopened them I'd see Anderson's face.

_Commander Shepard, can you hear me?_

I gasped for air, and the pain flooded my body. My eyes open to the real world and my vision is blurry, but there are people standing over me.

"She's awake."

I turned my head, blinking and trying hard to focus on the world around me.

"Are you aware of your surroundings?"

I shook my head in response.

Slowly but surely my vision was making its return. I could see the room of a med bay that surrounded me with the few doctors that stood around and inspected me.

"You are on the SSV Arcacia; we are transferring you over to a hospital in Ohio for advanced medical care as your injuries are critical."

I nodded again to show her, that I could hear her despite the raging pain. The redheaded woman, backed away to look at scans, and as I gazed over them momentarily, I felt a saddening defeat.

"Her whole right elbow is shattered, broken ribs and a punctured lung, a couple broken fingers, broken fibula, deep gashes to the abdomen, cuts, and scraps." The woman listed all my faults and I let out a small cry as I tried to move that same elbow, she had said was shattered. "Commander Shepard, just lie down, you are far too injured to be moving. We need more Medi-Gel and prepare the treatments to put her under; she's in far too much pain."

Once again, I was met with the darkness of the unknown.

* * *

When I awoke, I was no longer in a ships Med-Bay, but rather in a hospital bed facing the view of a forest from up high.

I felt better than I did before, rejuvenated and ready to see myself walking and so I tried to sit up.

"Whoa, take it easy," a familiar voice murmured and a hand on my shoulder, guided me to lie down again.

"Kaidan?" I said in a weak voice.

He moved beside me to a point where I could see him clearly, "I'm here," he took my good hand in his own, interwining our hands together, "I'm here," he repeated.

I smiled willingly as he moved towards me for a quick kiss and ran his other hand down the side of my face to push my hair behind my ear, "Anderson didn't-" I looked away from him, biting my lip in attempt to fight back my tears, but no luck as some of the liquid ran down my face.

I have been holding my emotions in for so many years and finally I let them show.

"I know," he whispered, squeezing my hand for comfort.

"I could have saved him," I said weakly, "If I'd been there quicker or-"

"There was no way of knowing what would have happened."

I looked at him again, looking at his face long and hard, still I felt like I could have done more to help Anderson. Being guilty was my downfall and I would spend so much time trying to figure out what I had done wrong.

Kaidan squeezed my hand again, "It's going to be alright."

And maybe it was and I had no way of knowing for sure, but somehow I'd make it through this.

_Commander Shepard was born on earth and fought like anyone else for her home world._

_She was a soldier and a leader, one who made peace where she could, knew when to be persuasive and when to apply pressure. The Commander was also a skilled Adept, one of the best the Alliance has ever seen on the battlefield. _

_And it was privilege to know her._


End file.
